attached to 130 flight air tech, barrie davis was a sgt pilot,
and was a gentleman. anyone remember earnie johnson. happy days, great bunch of blokes

worked on beavers while in the forces, magic plane,magic places,magic people.magic times.

Hello. Give answer to the question please. Where to find detailed drawings of the Beaver??

I have been flying A Beaver commercially on the BC coast for 25 years. Although the practice is now rightfully frowned upon, I can verify from personnal experience that it can be flown off the water with water over the top of the floats almost to the rear spredder bar. I have taken off on floats with 25 kt+ 90 degree xwinds. And done a lot of things the Beaver is not supposed to do.

I flew "Beavers" in Vietnam from 1968-70 as a log support bird for Birddog companies. It was a great plane to fly out of 800 ft. dirt strips.

I've only seen a Beaver in the Canadian national air museum in Ottawa, but I do have a story from a pilot who flew them. I met Bud Voss, now deceased, through model airplanes. He bought a kit from me of the 8-foot span model made by Unionville Hobby of Markham, Ontario. Bud told me that as part of their military training they had to "land" a Beaver in a minimal distance. He did it in 13 feet! It was essentially a crash landing and the plane had to be rebuilt afterward, but that was standard procedure as part of their training.
Anyway, that's what he told me and there is no way to question him about it. He had no reason to lie about it.

IanM

To Bob Pedigo comment...18.09.2010. No wonder you didn't like the 20k xwind component you were working with. I remember the Beaver as having a 10k xwind component, and at times wished it were rated at 20 or even 30. That plane had a way of making you look good in the worst of conditions.
I am grateful to have had so many hours in it.

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources bought registration # 2 of the line as well as many others. This Beaver was restored and to my knowledge still flies. It is equiped with Roll tanks for forest fire suppression mounted on the floats. While the original beaver was before my time with MNR it was a pleasure to hear many good stories from thos old firefighter about this fantastic aircraft.

I flew a Beaver on floats to Anchorage with a friend that owned it, he signed off my rating and I flew his other airplane back to Seattle. Nothing better then a round engine and like the 185 if you could get it in it would fly.

I am a plastic modeler that has been building kits for many years and would
> now like to add a Beaver to my collection. Some time ago I obtained two
> kits of a 1/24 scale Beaver on floats. The kits are very basic, about 25
> pieces total. What I would like to do is build one of the kits with fixed
> gear. My problem is that in the many sites that I have visited on the
> Internet, I have not been able to find any information regarding the
> dimensions/measurements for the fixed gear. I will be scratchbuilding the
> gear so it is very important that I have the correct measurements. If you
> could provide any information such as drawings, schematics, etc., I would
> appreciated the effort.
>
> Also, the aircraft that I intend on representing is 50-26105 USAF Alaska
> Air
> Command, Elmendorf AFB Alaska, 1964.
> If by chance you have some information on this bird, I would be interested
> in that, too. Thank you for your time.

I flew Beavers in Borneo from 1964 to 1967 and I do not remember Barrie Davies. I flew with 130 flt RCT. Who else flew Beavers? Just very curious. It is always intriguing to find out what you missed. Please let me know. I totally agree with his assessment of the Beaver. She picked me up when I had a fuel problem and took me home. She flew on limited panel when things were really traumatic and you knew she would always respond.My boss Major John Riggall,now, I believe, became Lt Col John Riggall must remember that. I left the Army and went into civil flying, and for the last 18 years of them as a Captain with BOAC/British Airways. I will never forget that beautiful Beaver that was part of you. You thought it to do and it did. The VC10 and the Tristar were so similar. Barry Courtney.

I am doing a project on this aircraft

I retied from the USAF. Never flew or even sat on this plane. I sure wished I could have. Spent many hours being flown across Europe on most every plane we had there. But I wished it could have been on this one. It looks so great - what a plane should look like.

Beavers arrived in Ghane in packing cases in 1960 and we RAF men on secondment to the Ghana Air Force built them up in no time. Flying under the bridge on the Volta River was good fun.

I worked (crewchief)on a L-20 Beaver when I was in Germany fron 1959 to 1961. I was stationed with the 30th Transportation Co. at Fleigerhorst Kaserne in Langendiebach, outside of Hanau. The last three numbers were 921. Anybody know what happened to that aircraft? It was a great plane. I still have the P/W medallion from the oil tank. They went fast! Love to hear from someone who knows.
Regards,
Kurt

Flew the L-20 in Japan,Korea, USA,Libya, Colombia, and Iran Agreat AC

Flew the L-20 at Scott AFB with the 85th FIS from 56-59. We used for parts pick-up and personnel movement. In 1970-71, got recurrent in it (now called the U-6) at Luke AFB where it was used to transport fighter pilots to the gunnery ranges as safety monitors, landing at unattended airstrips in the desert. Flew one of them to the boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB on its last flight. Have fond memories of my hours in the Beaver, despite being primarily an F86D, F101B and F102 pilot.

I worked at de Havilland Canada. Put in over 20 years at the plant. Started in 1952 Lancaster Overhaul,onto Beavers then Otters. Left DH for a number of years to return to work on Dash-7, Buffalo and last group of Twin Otters and on to the Dash-8. Heard many stories from operators about Beavers, Otters and Twin Otters and what they were capable of doing. Beaver truly deserves the credit it gets for doing what most planes only hope they can do. The only plane that can replace the Beaver is another Beaver. The Viking Twin Otter is doing that now so it's time to replace the Beaver. At the annual "Wings and Wheels" at the old DH plant many a highly modified and up-dated Beaver worth into the seven figures all of 60+ years old gets admiring glances. Not bad for an old work horse that was considered too expensive at the time of it's introduction selling at $24,000.00. After starring in a movie featuring a Beaver Harrison Ford went and bought one and flies it regularly. There are many stories I heard of the Beaver's capability but the best one I remember of a Northern operator showing me a photo of a heavily loaded Beaver on floats sitting in the water level to the top of the rear of the floats. I enquired if that was risky? His reply was." That if it still floats its safe to take off". There is a pride at de Havilland to build the best product possible and even now as in the Bombardier family the tradition still goes on.

Hello my company have 05 DHC-2 with R-985 Engines we are facing lots of problem regarding the spares like fuel content gauges, fuel content Tx and Tech Generators because of there 5year life can you help me in this matter. We are also interested to convert our these aircraft in to Tube Beaver can we do this?

I flew the Beaver in 'Nam '69-'70 123rd Avn Bn - ChuLai and FRG - Frankfurt '70 - seperation racking up a bit over 1,100 hours in it. I loved the bird and wish I had been privy to the end of war auctions. Went to Alaska a few years back and was happy to see all the U-6's flying in that neck of the woods.